Mandragora

For Halloween, Emily had a costume with a knife stuck through her chest, blood dripping down her face. ● And about sexuality, Emily has mastur-bated since she was one and a half years old. I prescribe Mandragora e radice 200K (laboratory Schmidt Nagel), and I ask him to bring his drawings at our next meeting.

Later in the consultation, he will confirm his attraction to the devil, which is like a game to him: the devil is tattooed on his skin, dangles on his key-ring, and often appears in his drawings.
Willy works as a night mediator in the tough neighbourhoods of the city: he often intervenes in circles where alcohol, drugs, and all their attendant problems are commonplace.
He practises martial arts and whenever he has to stop a fight and wants to make himself heard, he tells me that he can hit the fighters cold-bloodedly and effectively to calm them down and then bring them to talk things out. He has now come to a point where he hates violence.
He feels exploited at work (his salary is too low) and he expresses his resentment of his superiors. He would like to change his job. He is interested in psychology and he considers going back to his studies in order to work on difficult cases with the police: he is familiar with the frame of mind of underworld people and he understands them well, which would give him an edge when getting them to cooperate.
Willy listens to a lot of heavy metal music and he also composes some. He enjoys drawing and makes tattoos: "In my drawings, there is a mixture of purity and darkness; there are always demons and skulls next to beautiful women" (Fig. 2).
When he feels in a dark mood, he takes cannabis (in fact, he will tell me later that he was smoking more and more without getting any relief).
Sexual problems: he has a lot of sado-masochistic fantasies that he suppresses; he says he is very gentle in sexual intercourse, but he has trouble getting any pleasure, except with his latest partner.
It is not easy to deal with such a patient; I usually obtain much more information at the first meeting but this patient makes me feel a bit uncomfortable and it is difficult to win his confidence; I will understand why later.
So, I think it is better to wait until the next meeting to go further and I rely on what I feel to find a remedy. Obviously this patient does not correspond to a classical remedy case. I focus on "the devil" as a central theme: in the repertory, we find the following symptoms: • Delusions/possessed, he is: MANC, Anac, Bell, Hyos, Stram, Mand, … Mancinella is afraid of the devil, of being caught by the devil.
Anacardium corresponds more to Willy, but Anacardium is not really attracted by the devil.
This case looks more like a solanaceae, Belladonna? Then I remember the article by K. Heron "Mandragora, the darker side of Belladonna" that I recently read in "LINKS", and some similarities emerge: • Emily is "fascinated by the darker side of life; she is curious about death, not fearful of it. She reads book after book of horror stories." • "She is sensitive and can be very intense in her focus." • "She is very secretive: she doesn't let anyone into her own world." K. Heron observes: "What struck me on my first meeting was how self-contained she was." I had the same feeling with Willy. • For Halloween, Emily had a costume with a knife stuck through her chest, blood dripping down her face. • And about sexuality, Emily has masturbated since she was one and a half years old.
I prescribe Mandragora e radice 200K (laboratory Schmidt Nagel), and I ask him to bring his drawings at our next meeting.

November 2002
He says straight away that "the remedy has been very effective: much more energy, better relations with others, particularly with women: the contact is much better. Now, I could even have several girl-friends at the same time but I am not promiscuous …" He feels better with his boss, who is a woman he finds unbearable: he can talk back to her and he controls his impulsiveness better. He has not had any more dark periods since taking the remedy. He feels less gloomy. People tell him that he is more cheerful. No more insomnia, less aggressiveness. He no longer feels the need to smoke cannabis to relax when he feels low. He makes up his mind much more quickly to do something or to make decisions.
Willy has brought me drawings that will help me understand his personality more deeply. He tells me that he is fascinated by Dracula, by vampires, and that he is interested in zombies, in voodoo (Fig. 3). Sometimes when he draws, he will depict a beautiful woman and then he feels compelled to add skulls, vampire fangs.
He explains the violence of his characters by a violent and persistent resentment "that can take me to the point of having the other creep in front of me". He can be very cold in his anger and he could let the other die under his eyes. One should know better than hurt his feelings. Before, he would sometimes get so angry that he punched the walls. He still practises boxing. He has always drawn death's-heads. He feels animal-like inside although he also experiences emotions.
Dream 1: about spiders (he is terrified of them); they were all over the place and he killed them. Dream 2: his mother is talking to him; she is smiling and she is proud of him.

Analysis
The drawings show that the problem is deep and it might be linked to childhood traumas. Although Willy is not yet willing to speak about that, he is very eager to go on with the treatment. I prescribe the next higher potency.
Prescription: Mandragora e radice MK

January 2003
W. feels more self-confident. He had an affair that did not go well but he feels less affected emotionally than he would have been before. "I've been playing nurse to a girl again. I've had enough of helping them out and the next thing they do is leave." He feels more and more sensitive but he copes with things better (I think he is actually very sensitive but all his emotions were suppressed). He no longer has anger fits at his work; he gets less involved and distances himself from it more.
He enjoys writing again, and playing video games, as he did as a teenager, which enables him to release his aggressiveness. Now his drawings are evolving towards angels: he dropped a tattoo representing a skull with a spider web that he wished to do on himself. Now he wants something softer, something nicer. He wants more gentleness in his relationships, he wants comfort and to feel cosy at home so he takes care of his home.
At work W. no longer lets people push him around and he sets things straight with those of his workmates who would constantly rely on him.
I try to know where he finds pleasure in his life: so he tells me he is clairvoyant and likes to read cards for other people: now, when he does it, he does not feel the suffering of others as much as he used to.
Prescription: I think that the previous remedy is still acting and I propose to the patient to repeat Mandragora MK later on if necessary.

March 2003
Now I can speak more freely with him. In February he took Mandragora MK again and he finds that it releases his sensitivity  He no longer goes to extremes; now violence only comes up in his drawings. He no longer feels compelled to oppose or to provoke.

Childhood
Then I invite him to speak about his childhood: his mother hit him a lot, he got slapped at any opportunity and often for no reason that he could think of. "You slap first and ask questions later." He hardened himself as a result and slaps eventually had no effect on him; likewise, he refused his mother's tenderness when she acted in a more motherly way. He really considers himself as an abused child. For this reason, he did his military service as a conscientious objector in order to help ill-treated children.
The relationship with his mother was so difficult that he attempted suicide at six and tried to stab his mother at fourteen, his father had to stop him. At seventeen, he "smashed" his mother against a wall: he was fed up with dreaming every night about the slaps he had received as a child.
His father is very selfish and has never been interested in him. He got few "thrashings" from him but he had deserved them, for example after stealing a car. Five years ago, he "smashed his father's face in and left him in a pool of blood".
He has fallen out with all his relatives because none of them ever reacted when his mother hit him.
He went through a very difficult period: use of hard drugs and alcohol (he could drink two litres of vodka a day), and he was raped by three men at twenty. He grew out of the substance abuse on his own and succeeded in giving up drug addiction despite the numerous crises that he had to overcome. An example of his single-mindedness was that he would sometimes run twenty kilometres without stopping. Now he feels freer to give and receive affection, he can stay alone and he enjoys life. Sometimes he goes so far as to feel God's presence everywhere and he quotes from the Bible: "Pick up a stone, He is underneath." Some people told him that he had three angels to protect him.
He enjoys simple pleasures, gives a lot of tenderness. He finds pleasure in sex again. He no longer hates his past. He had refused to have children so far, not to hit them; now he would like to be a father. He considers living with his girl-friend as a real couple. He is no longer eager to show off like before (he used to sing in a rock band).
As far as women are concerned, he is still attracted by very beautiful women, he likes their looks, but "there has to be a brain and a heart there".
He also speaks about another aspect of his personality: the search for sensations in extreme practises to get a rush of adrenalin (and not to court danger). For example he liked driving at more than 140 mph (220 km/h); he tried bungee jumping and even managed to get into a fighter plane. He has never been afraid of death. Now "I think twice".
We talk about his expectations regarding the development of the treatment. He perfectly understands how the remedy works and he wishes to continue because he still feels violence inside him, which appears in his job.

August 2004 (5 months later)
This meeting takes place at my request in order to improve my knowledge of this remedy; he willingly complies.
Since his last visit, he quit his job as a mediator to set up a tattoo parlour in the city centre. By doing so he left the world of the night to live in full daylight.
I ask him to comment on his drawings: "I like both the angel and the demon sides; if you believe in God, you also believe in the devil. Satan was the most beautiful of angels. The devil is as useful as God. He reminds us that we're not on the right side". W. likes visiting churches. In one of them, he liked the depiction of the angel of death: "This angel also has its usefulness: God created it to play its role." W. feels especially attracted by death'sheads. One is printed on his T-shirt as a provocation: he doesn't like "political correctness". Once, he offered a friend a real skull for his twenty-first birthday! W. connects this macabre taste to his mother who worked on corpses (she was researching cancer as a biologist). Besides, he thinks that death was there when he was born because of the death of a twin sibling, but his mother always refused to speak about it.
In one of his drawings one can see a baby and an angel: "It is there to help the baby being born into a violent environment. The child can't choose: I couldn't stop my mother when she was hitting me." (Fig. 4).
However, he prefers drawing a demon because there is more expression in a demon's face; an angel is not so expressive: it's always smiling! These drawings are also a way to exorcise what he has been through. "I'm curious to know what the angels can be doing up there. Aren't they bored?" This brings us to talk about boredom. With Mandragora, he has become aware that he had been very bored as a child: he was always on his own as he was an only child; his mother made up for her lack of affection for him by buying vast quantities of toys: "I had three dustbins filled with Legos and toy cars." He wished he could have traded them for a little tenderness. His mother was depressive and his grandmother had been violent with her too.
This boredom explains his search for the strong sensations already mentioned; he doesn't like monotony. Too quiet a life lacks emotional stimulus. He also finds strong sensations in a sado-masochistic relationship with women. Mandragora has helped him accept that side of his personality, which he prefers to take as a game. It is a reminder of the submissive attitude he had in his relationship with his violent mother. He wishes to meet a woman who, like him, has both the angel and the demon polarity. He admits a great affective need, a need for cuddles and kisses. Mandragora has taught him how to receive affection: "Before, I didn't know what it was like." Then we speak about his new activity which he feels very good about. Then he tells me an anecdote that shows how strong his refusal to submit is: shortly after settling in, he had a visit from a hygiene inspector in his office. His reaction was strong, to the point of threatening the inspector that there would be consequences if the visit produced a negative report.
His attitude was persuasive enough and the inspector did not take any action.
This anecdote shows a characteristic trait of Mandragora: the subject refuses to yield.

About Mandragora
Following this case, I decided to carry out some detailed research on the remedy. The first homeopathic data is in Clarke and Allen. Three provings have been carried out more recently: Mezger did the first one in Germany in 1951 with D1 to D12 potencies; Raeside did the second one in England in 1964 with D3, D6 and D12 potencies. A summary of these two provings can be found in 'Le dictionnaire de la matière médicale homéopathique' by O. A. Julian. The third proving, carried out in 1996, is more interesting. It was led by three women (Smallbach, von Broock and Cordel) on eight provers with C30, C200 and C1000 potencies of Mandragora e radice, and one proving of Mandragora e fruti C30. This third proving provided a great number of mental symptoms, some of them corresponding to those reported above.
We have also found some interesting information in the traditional indications of the plant. The overall study of this data allows us to identify out the following characteristic themes:

Loss of sensitivity
The provings contain a lot of symptoms of physical or emotional sensitivity disorders: • The first day, the whole group looks paralysed, everything is slowed down • Hyper or hypoesthesia; numb feeling in fingers • Insensitivity of the throat, as if anaesthetized … Dioscoride already knew that property in the first century, mentioning it as a soporific and anaesthetic for surgical operations.

Another world, separation and isolation
This state of anaesthesia takes the patient into another world with a strong sensation of separation and isolation: • Strong feeling of rejection • Withdraws considerably • Feeling that nobody likes you • Immediately feels under attack, feels excluded • Dream: Feels a distance and a screen between herself and others • In groups, feels as if she were inhabiting a different reality

Victim sensation
These symptoms, like a lot of other symptoms of the 1996 proving, show that Mandragora considers himself as a victim in his relationship to others … • Dream: she has been robbed by someone she trusted and she becomes very bitter. She weeps and cries out • I've been had again • Has been robbed many times • Dreams about being taken hostage, about murder, about being chased and held prisoner • Concerned with the sexual violence suffered as a child … and a victim in the other world: • Sensing the presence of malevolent spirits • Delusion of being possessed by a demon Like the plant itself, the world of Mandragora is a hidden, underground world: the plant is basically a root whose shape recalls a human body, and it shuns the light of the sun. This secret side can be found in the name of the plant in Old German: 'Alraune', from 'Raune' (secret).

In his book 'Man and Medicinal Plants', W.
Pelikan reports: "… all the substances produced by the leaves are put at the disposal of the root; the growth power is siphoned down and kept there … Unlike other solanaceae that are summer growing plants, mandragora stops its growth at the apogee of spring to start it again the next year …"

Violence
As a victim, the Mandragora patient improves when he can express his inner violence: • She is herself again through anger. In anger, she found energy and the fire of life • Nose clogged, improved when anger is expressed • Great anger towards her mother with an urge to hit her, to punch her • Impulse to destroy, to hit, to cry out Otherwise, he aims the violence at himself: • Self-destructive behaviour • Fantasies of suicide • Depression and a death wish The other alternative is to find a solution in the other world: there Mandragora will first look for light within what is confused, hidden, to the point of developing great insight: • Confusion and pursuit of clarity, individuality • When in group, all that isn't clear is laid out in the open • Now she sees her mother in the right light • Premonitory dreams • She is a clairvoyant for other people and develops their corporal symptoms

Magic powers and the devil
But the other world is also the world of magic powers where the devil dwells: • Bewitches a man who threatens her and turns him into a rabbit. (The transformation of a man into an animal is a common theme of solanaceae) • Repertory: Delusion; Possessed, he is In Willy and Emily's cases, the attraction to magic or the devil is clearly expressed. Willy also acts as clairvoyant by reading people's cards.
I don't think that Mandragora wilfully tries to do evil; it is rather a reactive mode to his perception of himself as a victim.
The relationship between mandrake and the devil has been known since antiquity: • Flavius Josephus in "The War of Jews" reports that harmful spirits were expelled by laying a mandrake root by the side of the sick; however, the person who uprooted the plant could die and a dog had to be used to dig it up: then the dog was the one that died. • In Arabian, the fruit of the mandrake plant is called 'Devil's apple'. • In the 12th century, Hildegard von Bingen said about the plant: "In mandrake, the devil's influence is more present than in other plants; that is why it stimulates humans as to the direction of their desire for good and evil."

Refusal to yield or accept limits
The cases reported here show another aspect of Mandragora, namely the refusal to yield to a higher power. Perceiving reality more broadly, Mandragora rejects the limits of the material world. Among the other cases that I have come across, a patient once mentioned the fury aroused in him by the road patrols controlling speed: this rule did not apply to him. With children, Mandragora envies the characters endowed with magic powers like those in Harry Potter stories: they hold the key to the hidden power. From a certain angle, Mandragora could be compared to a political leader who places himself above the law.
This rejection of limits might explain why such patients consider themselves as victims: when they have to respect a law, obey a superior, fulfil a request, they experience it as an unacceptable imposition, hence this relationship to the devil who respects no command.

Fear of pain and death
Mandragora also rejects the ordinary person's basic fears: pain and death; he has made himself insensitive to pain so as not to suffer and he challenges death because he has access to a different reality. The 1996 proving reports: • She goes as far as the frontier between life and death Willy also likes the extreme situations that he seeks out, to get a rush of adrenalin.

Passages of birth and death
Mandragora bears the memory of the passages that birth and death are: Willy's first drawing is very expressive in this regard; also note Emily's attraction to Halloween and graveyards. In another case that I treated, a seven-year old girl said about a friend of hers: "She'd be better off never having being born!"

Chaos
This brings us to one remarkable symptom of the proving: • Feeling of falling into chaos then finding support in chaos This can be interpreted as the rejection of an orderly world with its rules, its laws: he prefers chaos, which in some cases the world of drugs can be. However, there is no happiness for him in it. Hippocrates had already said that mandrake could cure deep depressions. This is confirmed by Raeside's proving, where depression is the most important of the mental symptoms.

Sexuality and fertility
It is interesting to note that Willy's first improvement after he took the remedy is the recovery of his emotional sensitivity: he recovers the ability to cry and then he will gradually transform the way in which he lives his relationship. This leads us to address another important theme of mandrake, the theme of sexuality and fertility.
In the 1996 proving, the following symptoms appear: • Strong erotic pull • Would enjoy carnal contacts • Dreams about unrestrained behaviour These are related to the age-old use of the plant as an aphrodisiac. It is even quoted in that context in the Song of Songs in the Bible (VII-13). In mythology, the plant is associated with Venus, Aphrodite, Circe.
As far as fertility is concerned, the plant is already mentioned in Genesis (XXX-14) when Rachel asks Lea for some mandrake to be able to conceive; and it is surprising to observe that during Raeside's proving a woman who had been sterile for eleven years became pregnant!

Locals and generals
At the physical level, J. R. Raeside's proving gives an accurate image of the remedy: a lot of pain in the upper and lower extremities can be found, and a particular affinity for the eyes with pain and inflammation; most proverssuffered frontal headaches.The pain is morefrequently located on the right-hand side and is made worse by movement.

Conclusion
On the basis of this data, I hope that this secret remedy will be more easily "unmasked" in consultation. It has a particular affinity with our times, when "fantasy" is quite successful thanks to books and films like the Harry Potter series and The Lord of the Rings. It can be identified in a child thanks to the information provided by its parents. It is more difficult with an adult: remember that the life of the mandrake plant happens mostly underground and it doesn't wish to be brought up into the light. Besides, the notion of victim, real or imaginary, along with the refusal of submission are crucial in this remedy and will make it possible to differentiate it from other solanaceae.